


Shifters

by StrategicDilemma



Series: Bederia Week 2020 [5]
Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pocket Monsters: Sword & Shield | Pokemon Sword & Shield Versions
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Bederia Week 2020, Canon Compliant, DressedinPinkShipping, F/M, Soulmates, bederia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-27
Updated: 2020-02-27
Packaged: 2021-02-28 01:27:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,358
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22915477
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StrategicDilemma/pseuds/StrategicDilemma
Summary: Every person has someone with which they share a special connection, and sometimes they trade consciousness, taking control of each other's bodies and seeing through each others eyes. This is called "shifting."Bederia Week Day 5: Soulmates
Relationships: Beet | Bede/Yuuri | Gloria
Series: Bederia Week 2020 [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1642540
Comments: 11
Kudos: 81





	Shifters

**Author's Note:**

> I really really really really really really really don't like Soulmate AUs. They just really aren't for me, and I tried very hard to come up with an interesting concept that wasn't as cliche as the "soulmark."
> 
> Think of this as sort of a Kimi No Na Wa knock-off. Enjoy!

Gloria first learned about shifting when she was ten, when Hop had his first shift. They were out playing in Hop’s front yard, chasing around his Wooloo, when Hop stopped suddenly and clutched his head.

“You okay?” Gloria asked, walking to his side.

“I dunno, my head just… started hurting,” he grumbled, rubbing at his forehead. As soon as he finished speaking, Hop fell unconscious, his eyes rolling back into his head as body fell forward. Before Gloria could catch him, his foot stepped forward and caught himself, and suddenly he was awake again.

Hop blinked, slowly looking around his yard, his eyebrows furrowed as though he was confused. When he saw Gloria, he squeaked in surprise, jumping back. His eyes were glazed over, their usual shine gone.

“Who are you?!” Hop demanded, then his hands came up to cover his mouth. “Wha—” he gasped, looking down at his hands, frantically flipping them over. “What??” his head shot up to look at Gloria fearfully.

“What’s goin’ on?!” he shouted, causing her to take a step back.

“Hop, you’re scaring me,” Gloria frowned, holding her hands up protectively in front of her.

“Hop?” he repeated, shaking his head rapidly. “What’s ‘Hop?’” He fainted shortly after, once again gaining consciousness and catching himself before he crashed onto the ground. He groaned in pain, as he held his head with both hands.

Gloria screamed, calling for his mother.

By the time his mother came out, Gloria had noticed that Hop’s eyes were back to normal as he looked around the environment. He immediately began excitedly rambling about being in some dark place surrounded by people wearing a lot of spikes with weird colored hair, waving his arms rapidly over his head. His mum’s scared expression fell from her face, her shoulders relaxing as her son described everything in great detail. Still, she urged Hop to go to his room and rest, and Gloria went home for the day.

Gloria had nervously recounted everything to her own mother, explaining how Hop seemed to be in a trance and hadn’t even recognized her.

“Is he gonna be okay??” she whined, and her mum smiled warmly.

“Honey, he’ll be fine,” she said comfortingly, kneeling down to Gloria’s level. “Your friend just had his first shift.”

“Shift?”

Her mum nodded. “You see, everyone shares a special connection with another person in this world,” she explained, holding up a finger in each hand and touching them together as a demonstration, “and when they both reach a certain age, they ‘shift’ with one another. They see each other’s worlds through their eyes and take control of the other person’s body for a short time.” She gently poked Gloria’s nose. “You were talking to Hop’s special person, or his ‘shifter,’ which is why they didn’t recognize you.”

Gloria’s eyes were wide. “Does that hurt?”

Her mother laughed, getting back on her feet. “Hop may have a bit of a headache, but I promise he’ll be okay.”

Gloria’s mind was reeling. She had been talking to someone else in Hop’s body? That meant Hop had been in _their_ body, which explains all his rambling about the people with the strange hair. She looked at her mother. “Will I shift too?”

“Someday, sweetie,” her mum cooed, patting her daughter’s head. “Be patient; it happens at different times for everyone.”

\----

Gloria thought about shifting nearly every day since the incident with Hop. She was especially curious about Hop’s shifter, but every time she asked him about it, he didn’t have much to say about what they looked like. Hop was often too distracted in the environment to really get a good look at their body when he shifted, saying there were often bright neon signs and loud rock music playing in the vicinity.

“I think they’re a girl, though,” Hop had said. “They seem to wear a lot of dresses and frills.”

Gloria found herself researching the topic more and more, almost preparing herself. Shifting seemed to be a random phenomenon, happening at different points and with different frequencies for every pair, and some shifts could be as short as a few second or as long as a half-hour. Many people tended to marry their shifters once they found each other, feeling especially attached to one another through their connection, and Gloria wondered whether Hop would end up marrying his when they finally met one another.

She was eleven when she had her first shift. She had been sitting on her, scrolling through her Rotom phone when she was struck with a horrible migraine. Blotches appeared in front of Gloria’s eyes and she felt her body break out into a cold sweat. Before she could move to grab some water or maybe take some pain relievers, everything went black.

In a blink of an eye, she was in a different room. The walls and floors were made with a pristine, chromatic metal, as though she was in some futuristic building, but the room itself was nearly empty. Other than a twin-sized bed, a desk, and a dresser, there was nothing, and Gloria could have sworn there wasn’t even a speck of dirt on the floor.

Immediately, she scrambled over the desk, her shifter’s longer legs making it awkward to walk. She didn’t know how much time she would have, and she didn’t want to waste the opportunity. Yanking open the drawers, she quickly found a pen and a notebook. Hastily she flipped to an empty page, throwing the notebook down onto the desk. She tried to hold the pen steady as she wrote her message, but it felt unnatural in her right hand and her handwriting was shaky as a result. Finally, she managed to scribble out a message to her shifter:

_**I don’t know you, but I want to. I’ll find you someday, I promise.** _

When she returned to her body, she was standing next to her bookshelf, holding one of the books. Her shifter must have just spent their time rummaging through her books, as everything else in the room seemed untouched. Placing the book back on the shelf, Gloria rubbed at her temples, trying to soothe the sudden headache she had.

Her shift had been too short to try to find a mirror or at least figure out where they were, and she had to admit that it was a bit stupid of her to not even _try_ to look at her shifter’s body. Still, she had managed to write her message, and the rest would have to wait for a different time.

All she knew right now was that they had long legs and pale skin, and apparently, they were also left-handed.

\----

The next time she shifted was _much_ more uncomfortable, as her shifter had just bathed and was in the bathroom in their underwear. Gloria withheld a scream of surprise as she looked down at their body— _his_ body— and blushed heavily. Immediately grabbing a towel to wrap around her shifter’s chest (not that there was anything to cover, but she felt more comfortable with it), she wiped off some of the steam on the mirror to get a look at herself.

Her shifter was like no one she had ever seen before, his head filled with fluffy, white curls and his eyes a piercing purple. Lifting a hand, she ran her fingers over his pale face and white eyebrows. He was _striking,_ she thought, as she felt his sharp, pronounced jaw. At least it would be easy to recognize if she ever ran in to him.

Shifting back to her body, she was exactly where she left herself: on the couch in Hop’s living room, watching one of Leon’s matches on television. However, the stern, angry look that Hop was giving her from the other end of the couch was new.

“Hop?” she asked, indicating that it was _her_ talking and not someone else.

“Your shifter is a real jerk,” he grumbled, crossing his arms. “They said my clothes were shabby and I had the personality of a hyperactive toddler.”

“He _said_ that?!” Gloria gawked. Hop threw his hands up in the air.

“I know, right?! All I was doing was cheering on my bro!” He huffed and sunk into the couch. “What a piece of work.”

Gloria frowned, not saying anything. Well, _that_ wasn’t okay, and her shifter had said that within only half a minute of meeting Hop. Maybe he was the type of person that she didn’t want to meet.

“Oh, they wanted me to tell you something,” Hop added, shifting on the couch slightly. “Wanted me to ask if you ‘enjoyed the show’ or whatever.”

Gloria’s face flushed.

\----

She didn’t shift again for a few months, but when she came back, she found a note written to her in a notebook on her desk, not unlike the message she had left for him during their first shift.

 _I realize that insulting your friend (I presume) probably was not_ _a good impression, and I will at least apologize to you over it. He was the Galar Champion’s brother, so I believe you also live in Galar? It doesn’t seem to be anywhere I’ve been, but I’ll admit I’ve mostly spent time in large cities._

His penmanship was shaky, probably having trouble writing with his dominant hand since Gloria was right-handed, but she was surprised at how eloquently he wrote. Gloria was eager to respond, but she impatiently had to wait until their next shift.

A couple weeks later, the opportunity came when Gloria once again found herself in his bedroom, halfway through a book. Tossing the book aside, she rushed over to his desk, once again finding a pen and notebook.

_**I’ll accept your apology but be nice to him! He’s my best friend! I live in southern Galar in a town called Postwick. Not a lot of people visit since it’s mostly farmland, so I don’t blame you for never visiting. Where are you right now?** _

She returned to her body to find herself staring in a mirror in her bathroom. Her shifter must have been curious as to what she looked like, and the thought made her embarrassed.

Gloria began carrying a spare notepad and pen with her, just in case she ever shifted away from her bedroom. It came in handy about a month later while Gloria was out picking up groceries for her mother, and she came back to another message:

_This system of communication is very clever, I must commend you. I unfortunately don’t have a phone like you do, so this will have to do for now. I live in Wyndon currently, in the Macro Cosmos building. We roughly seem to be the same age._

Gloria managed to respond when they shifted a couple days later, noticing that her shifter also began carrying around a notepad with him:

_**I want to know all about you. Tell me everything.** _

They continued their back-and-forth, sometimes waiting months between responses. Gloria learned that her shifter’s name was Bede, and he was an orphan currently being fostered by the CEO of Macro Cosmos and Chairman of the Galar League. He told her that because the Chairman was such a fan of battling, Bede was hoping to get sponsored soon so he could take part in Gym Challenge.

 ** _I want to get sponsored too_** , she wrote, **_but I feel bad about it. Hop has been dreaming about doing the Gym Challenge and becoming Champion like his brother for as long as I can remember. I don’t want to have to fight him._**

_I realize he’s your friend, but you shouldn’t feel obligated to sacrifice your own desires just because he has the same ones. You do realize that we would have to fight one another as well if we both get sponsored, correct?_

**_Well duh, I know that. Hop is just sensitive, and I don’t want to hurt him. I wouldn’t mind fighting you if it meant that I finally get to meet you. Besides, you seem like you’d put up a good battle._ **

_Oh? What makes you say that?_

**_I just get that feeling. Maybe it’s because I’m constantly in your head. Am I wrong?_ **

_How interesting, I have the same feeling about you. Just know that I wouldn’t go easy on you just because you’re my shifter._

**_I feel like I’d have to go easy on you; with how pale you are, a strong breeze would be enough to bruise._ **

_I hope for your sake, you’re as funny in person, when you don’t have months to plan out your response._

It was so strange: the two had never met, but Gloria felt so close to Bede already. There connection was something Gloria had never experienced, not even with Hop, and she spent the time between shifts desperately researching ways to shift voluntarily. She wanted to talk to him every day, and these months between messages were driving her insane.

\----

When she was fourteen, Leon visited home to give Hop and her their first Pokemon, and he excitedly announced that he was going to sponsor both of them. Hop couldn’t contain himself, jumping for joy and triumphantly declaring to the world that _he_ was going to be the next Champion.

When she and Bede shifted early morning the next day, he had left a note for her:

_I want you to know that since our last shift, the Chairman has decided to sponsor me for the next season of the Gym Challenge. I’ll be in Motostoke tomorrow to register. I don’t know the next time I’ll hear from you, but I sincerely hope it will be in person. You did promise to find me._

Gloria immediately dialed Hop’s phone, shoving things into her backpack. He picked up, but it was obvious that he had been woken up by her call.

“Hop, we gotta head to Motostoke! Now!”

“ _Huh_?” he replied, stifling a yawn. “ _Gloria, it’ll take us, like, three days to get there.”_

“He’ll be there, Hop!” she exclaimed. “My shifter! I have to go meet him! I don’t know when I’ll get another chance, so we _have to go!_ ”

**Author's Note:**

> :^)
> 
> Tumblr: https://strategicdilemma.tumblr.com/  
> Bederia server: https://discord.gg/c4p2KVS  
> Twitter: https://twitter.com/stratsdilemma


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